Astronaut waits for chance to blast off

Since joining NASA in 1996, the Massachusetts native is paying her dues on the ground, patiently waiting for the chance to blast off into space as part of the agency's coveted shuttle crews.

"It will be a dream come true," said Wilson, 35. "It will be very rewarding because it's something I have been working toward for a very long time. I expect to feel excited and to have a great sense of accomplishment."

Until the shuttle assignment comes, however, there's more than enough to keep the Harvard-educated astronaut busy at the Johnson Space Center, where she takes part in regular training exercises and flight simulations.

She's a capsule communicator, or CAPCOM, working in Mission Control as prime communicator with crews aboard the shuttle and International Space Station. She and her husband, B.J. McCurdy, a producer at KRIV, live in the Clear Lake area.

"As the flight controllers work with the system of the (shuttle and International Space Station) vehicles, I'm giving the crew information on the status of the systems and information on their activities for the day, as well as any malfunctions that have occurred."

Wilson's love affair with space began as a teenager in Pittsfield, Mass. As part of a class assignment in junior high school, she was asked to interview an expert in a field of interest and share her findings with her class.

She tracked down Jay Passachoff, an astronomy professor at nearby Williams College. The meeting proved prophetic.

"He was very receptive and willing to answer all the questions I had," Wilson recalls. "I was fascinated with his work, but I wondered, `Why look at the heavens with a telescope? Why not get as close as I can?' That's when I started thinking about space flight."

Wilson plunged into her high school work with newfound vigor.

Fueling her academic intensity was a burning curiosity about what makes things tick.

"I'm an analytical person," Wilson said. "I ask a lot of questions because I like to understand how things work and how they are put together."

Heading to Harvard University in 1984, Wilson decided to pursue a degree in engineering science, thanks to some gentle persuasion from her father, Eugene Wilson, who had studied electrical engineering at Northeastern University and had electronics training in the Navy.

Her father retired from Lockheed Martin's Quality Assurance and Reliability Division. Her mother, Barbara, worked as a production assistant at Lockheed before her retirement.

After graduating from Harvard in 1988, Wilson worked two years for the former Martin Marietta Astronautics Group in Denver.

She left Martin Marietta in 1990 and headed south to Austin, where she attended graduate school at the University of Texas. Her research focused on the control and modeling of large, flexible space structures.

After earning a master's degree in aerospace engineering, she joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., in 1992, specializing in work on the Galileo spacecraft that was launched in 1989 to study Jupiter.

"That was definitely one of my (career) highlights," Wilson said.

She reported to Johnson Space Center in 1996, ready to tackle the rigorous challenges of being an astronaut candidate, which is a two-year program.

"It was rigorous, but much like being in an academic environment," she said. "We spent many hours in training, which required after-hours studying, but I was accustomed to that environment. I welcomed the challenges, but I certainly found that it was something I could do."

Although her current duties require her to work odd hours -- she sometimes rises at 1 a.m. for an eight-hour shift -- Wilson still finds time to devote to the community. She serves as a trustee of Galveston's Reedy Chapel AME Church, which is the mother church of the African Methodist Church in Texas.

Wilson gives credit to black innovators "who have come before me and struggled to pave the way" -- pioneers like Bessie Coleman, the first African-American woman to receive an international pilot's license, and civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

To help boost the number of minorities in the astronaut ranks, Wilson has volunteered to tutor minority students in math and science, which are vital courses for a career at NASA.

"Understanding that the number of minority astronauts is small, (success) is about being a team player and doing the best job for NASA that I can," she said.

"We want to see more young people of color becoming more interested and showing strengths in aviation, math, science and engineering. With an early focus in these areas, the pool of eligible minority astronauts will increase."

If you have a suggestion for a "Faces in the Crowd" profile, contact Richard Zagrzecki at richard.zagrzecki@chron.com or send a fax to 713-220-7552.